This week has shown why the world of esports is perhaps the most exciting and unpredictable form of competition, and thereby betting, in the world today as at the Dota 2 World Cyber Arena 2016 qualifier, there has been something of a shock.

With established Dota 2 teams such as Alliance, Vega Squadron, Escape Gaming and Team Empire already invited into the event, with Elements One replacing Team Liquid as the fifth invitee, it was expected that the winner and runner’s up of this competition would likely come from one of the big name teams.

With qualifying for the World Cyber Arena Main Event in Yinchuan, China this December available for the two finalists, plus a cash prize of over $27,000 for the winner and around half that for the runner up, there was plenty on the line for the eight teams participating.

Certainly the esports bookmakers had the more established teams as the favourites ahead of the three qualifiers, Fantastic Five, Ad Finem and Kaipi.

In the first round, Fantastic Five sent Ad Finem into the Losers Round 1, where the qualifier lost to Team Empire. Fantastic Five then were sent into the Losers Round 2 when they lost their semi final to Empire Gaming.

In the Losers Round 2, once again the more established team prevailed with Team Empire, fresh from their win over Ad Finem, defeated Fantastic Five 2-0 to send the second qualifier home relatively early in the competition.

However, the third qualifier, Kaipi, were bucking the trend. In the quarter final they defeated Elements One 2-0 and then surprised many by defeating Vega Squadron 2-0 in the Semi Final, earning themselves a place in the winner’s final.

Escape Gaming were expected to prove too tough a task in that match up, but Kaipi once again shocked many with a 3-1 victory over their more famous opponents and thus confirmed their place in the Grand Final and with it, confirming their participation in the Main Event in China this coming December.

That result sent Escape Gaming into a Losers Final against Vegas Squadron to claim the second Grand Final spot, with that match taking place yesterday (31st August) and the Grand Final also set to take place a couple of hours after the Losers Final.

It is congratulations to Team SoloMid (North America), G2 Esports (Europe), ROX Tigers (Korea), Edward Gaming (China), Flash Wolves (Taiwan, Hong Kong & Macau) and Albus NoX Luna (International), who have claimed their place in the 2016 World Championships with victory in the Summer Split for their region.

However, the action doesn’t stop for the League of Legends teams that finished second to fifth in each of the sections as the Regional Qualifiers will now kick into action, offering one of those teams the chance to earn a place at the World Championships, which will take place at four different venues across the United States of America from September 29th to October 29th.

The format is a three game series which sees the four teams that qualified for this section playoff against each other. The second place team in the Summer Playoffs has a buy direct into Game 3, with the third place team given a bye to Game 2.

The fourth and fifth place teams in the Summer Playoffs will contest Game 1, with the winner moving on to Game 2 and the winner of that game moving on to face the seeded team in the final Game 3.

All games in this event are best of five and there will be plenty of betting available on the matches in each qualifying section as the four teams battle it out for a place at the 2016 World Championship.

Of the 16 World Championship qualifiers, the results of the Summer Playoffs mean that ten of the 16 teams competing are now known.

North America – Team SoloMid and Counter Logic Gaming

Europe – G2 Esports and H2K Gaming

South Korea – ROX Tigers and SK Telecom T1 (current World Champions)

China – Edward Gaming, Royal Never Give Up and IMay

Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau – Flash Wolves

The remaining six qualifiers will come from the results of the Regional Qualifiers in North America, Europe, South Korea and Taiwain/Hong Kong/Macau (China have already completed their qualifiers), while there will be two additional places available to winning teams of Regional Wildcard events.

What this means is that as we begin the run up to the World Championship and its $1,000,000 prize for the winner, there will be plenty of fantastic League of Legends betting available across a wide number of events over the coming weeks. We suggest keeping an eye on Bet365 Esports for updated esports betting odds.

Lots of high quality CS:GO betting available over the coming weeks

If you want an esport that is going to offer you a huge amount of betting opportunities over the coming weeks throughout September then undoubtedly CS:GO is the game to target with a massive number of tournaments taking place throughout the month, as well as some big events coming to a close over the next few days too.

One such event is the Global Grand Masters, which has been in action for a couple of months now and which has seen sixteen teams competing for the prize through a Group Stage and then a playoff round.

After the first round of playoff games and the group stages before them, the 16 teams have been whittled down to four, with Rogue taking on PENTA Sports in the first semi final, followed by Team AGG facing Mortal Kombat in the second.

Other events that you can enjoy plenty of CSGO gambling on right now include the ESL Pro League, ESL ANZ, Epicenter Qualifiers, Hitbox Challenger Cup, World Championships and the XFunction Masters.

In September too, there is the DreamHack Bucharest event taking place from the 16th to the 18th September, while the SL i-League S2 Finals take place a week or so earlier from the 7th September through the 11th.

All this means that if you are looking for esports betting opportunities throughout November then CS:GO offers you a wealth of choice across a wide range of different events.

A lifelong poker fan, Ian is also well-versed in the world of sports betting, casino gaming, and has written extensively on the online gambling industry. Based in the UK, Ian brings fresh insight into all facets of gaming.